FLATS FOR OLD PEOPLE

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28397, 2 October 1957, Page 3

FLATS FOR OLD PEOPLE

Napier Man Offers

£15,000

(New Zealand Press Association) NAPIER, October 1.

Mr A. H. Charles, of Napier, has given £15,000 to the Napier City Council for the provision of additional flats for elderly people. His offer, accepted by the council last night, is conditional on the council providing a further £15,000, by way of loan through the State Advances Corporation, that total qualifying for a Government subsidy of £30.000 to make a total sum of £60,000. Another condition is that the flats be built at the earliest possible moment, and last night the council decided to call tenders immediately for the first flats—about 12 units —to be erected m the suburb of Onekawa.

The Mayor (Mr Tait) said that Mr Charles’s gift was a magnificent gesture, particularly in view of the urgent need to provide accommodation for elderly people. There had recently been 41 applications for four flats erected for pensioners, and the State Advances Corporation had advised that in Napier there were 61 applications altogether, of which 44 were classed as urgent. Mr Tait said that the total expenditure of £60.060 should provide about 36 double and singleunit flats for elderly people.